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A decades-old anti-apartheid song, recently exposed by Elon Musk for allegedly quoting violence against white South Africans, returned to the spotlight on Thursday following a ruling by the country’s highest court.
The controversial song with the lyrics “Kill the Boer” and “Shoot The Boer” – Boer was a term for a white farmer – was a source of quarrel in South Africa for a long time. Its use is mainly limited to political gatherings of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a small, leftist opposition party.
The revival of the song in the headlines follows a rally last Friday, where EFF leaders sang the national anthem, which Musk, who previously said that free speech has the basis of a functioning democracy, is to X (formerly Twitter). He accused the EFF of “actively promoting” white genocide “, which reflected with previous criticism of the song.
The EFF claims that the song is a tribute to the fight against apartheid and that it should not be interpreted literally.
There were several court cases on whether the song is hate speech and is an incitement to violence against whites in South Africa after apartheid. It was declared more than a court as hate speech more than a decade ago, but the verdict was overturned in 2022, when a judge said there was no evidence that it caused violence.
The Constitutional Court on Thursday rejected an application from a group representing some of South Africa’s white minority to appeal the latest decision and prohibit the song. This was the second time an appeal had failed by the group.
Billionaire Musk, an influential adviser to US President Donald Trump, grew up in South Africa and there is high school there, but left before apartheid ended in 1994.
He quoted the song as an example of how the current black guided government in his homeland allowed anti-white hatred, and Trump punished South Africa last month in an executive order that cut all US financing to the country and accused it of “hateful rhetoric and government actions that attract disproportionate violence against racial landowners.”
The South African government said the executive order is based on incorrect information and there is no prosecution of white people, which accounts for about 7% of the population, but is still more than 30 years after the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule.
‘Shoot the farmer’ lyrics
The song was especially condemned in South Africa by a group representing Afrikaners – a specific white minority descended from the Dutch and French colonial settlers. The word farmer is mostly used for an Afrikaner and the roots of the song stem from the fact that Afrikaners were at the heart of the racist white apartheid government.
The Afrikaner group, known as AfriForum, has long been offended for the ‘Shoot the Boer’ lyrics and said on Thursday it condemned the Constitutional Court’s decision to reject his appeal and instead legalized the murder of Afrikaners and Boers. ‘In response, AfriForum would expand its 177 private neighborhood and farm safety patrols, it says. It is also said that there was an ‘increase in ideologically driven judges’, a rare criticism of the courts of South Africa, which are largely respected.
AfriForum recently traveled to the US to meet with Trump administrative officials, and has struggled to take note of the case in the US for years.
According to experts, there is no evidence that whites are being targeted for violence in South Africa, although white farmers are sometimes victims of violent attacks in their homes, just like many other races in a country that have a desperately high crime figure and have an average of 70 manslaughter per day.
This week, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa spokesman told the Network24 News Outlet that the official crime statistics “proved that there are no mass murders of farmers in South Africa.”
The song ‘Shoot the Boer’ is now used as a criticism that South Africa did not give a better life for millions of impoverished black people, the fiery and controversial leader of the economic freedom fighters said in one of the court cases.
The song still revived racial tension in a country that was largely successful with the reconciliation in the years after the segregation of apartheid ended in 1994.
The ruling of the Constitutional Court to reject an appeal against the use of the song was also criticized on Thursday by the Democratic Alliance, the second largest party in South Africa and a member of the government coalition with Ramaphosa’s African National Congress.
“The inflammatory” kill the farmer “singing has no place in our society, regardless of any legal decision on its constitutionality,” the Democratic Alliance said.
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